Four Manipuri vehicle thieves held in Delhi

New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS) A jobless MBA and three others from Manipur were arrested here for their involvement in inter-state thefts of vehicles, Delhi Police said Sunday.

The four men were involved in 18 cases of vehicle thefts. Eleven stolen vehicles were recovered from them, police said.

K. Sanathomba Singh, 27, an MBA from Coimbatore and the leader of the gang, and his accomplices Ravi Masroor, 22, Farooq Ahmed, 23, and Sohail, 26, were arrested during a picket checking in south Delhi Tuesday, police said.

Sanathomba Singh worked with an international bank and a multi-national corporation in Noida before starting the gang, according to police.

Masroor performed bike stunts for advertising agencies before he joined Sanathomba Singh in stealing vehicles, according to police.

"During the day, they would conduct a reconnaissance of various areas in different parts of Delhi and identify vehicles which they would target during early morning hours. One of them would break the locks of the bikes, while the others kept guard. They also had a workshop of sorts at their residence," said Deputy Commissioner of Police Chhaya Sharma.

They would change the number plates of stolen vehicles at their workshop, create fake registration certificates and finally drove the stolen vehicles to Meerut.

"In Meerut, the stolen vehicles would be received by Abu Hassan who would then send these to Manipur by train. He gave them Rs.40,000-60,000 for bikes," said Sharma.